Searching For The Aftermath
by Laraqua
Summary: Heather has given birth under natural conditions and now the Cult believes that the new child will help raise God from her slumber
1. Default Chapter

COPS REMOVE THE CULT  
  
Yesterday, a woman belonging to the Silent Hill cult turned herself in to help the police with their inquiries. The police have already arrested one person, a Ms. Julia Edwards, in connection with the increase of kidnappings, murder and drug-related crimes.  
  
The authorities have responded that they are relieved that someone has finally stepped forward to end this legacy of crime although they refused to comment on what Australian, Julia Edwards, has actually done. They stated that it may hamper their investigations if it were public knowledge.  
  
However, Doctor Patterson of Brookhaven Hospital has stated that: "Often, so-called breakthroughs have been later discovered to be just the police chasing their own tails."  
  
"If this investigation comes up with any more than one drug trafficker's name, or whatever Miss. Edwards is, I'll be surprised."  
  
The police have so far commandeered two kiloes of White Claudia which were found in Ms. Edward's possession. So far, their only suspect, Ms. Edward's, has only been in Silent Hill for four months and is heavily pregnant. Her neighbours mentioned that she enjoyed helping the Silent Hill Historical Society conduct their research.  
  
19th July, 2018 Brahm Times  
  
Jenny carefully folded the newspaper and put it in the bag by her feet. That wasn't a promising read of the next town and she was glad she was only passing through. Hopefully the bus didn't use Silent Hill as a break stop or else she wouldn't be able to buy anything to eat. Who would trust any food cooked in a drug-infested place? Particularly a drug she knew nothing about.  
  
She rolled another cigarette, filling it with 75% marijuana and 25% tobacco, since she really wanted to quit smoking cigarrettes. No more 50% tobacco for her.  
  
There weren't that many people on the bus. She took out a notepad and started adding to the short summaries of each person. It was a habit of hers. Her psychiatrist said it was a remnant of her old obsessive compulsive behavior but she couldn't see anything wrong with it. It killed time. It was good to get a brief overview of who people were so she could know who to trust and who not to.  
  
All right, first summary. What to add?  
  
BUS TRIP. 19th July, 2018.  
  
Dinah – American – 'Vindicator. Front-row. Right. Middle-aged.  
Needs a Diet. Drawing in sketchbook. Lead pencils.  
How does she do it? The bus's rattling. Heavily tanned.  
  
Divorced maybe? Has pale ring marking on right hand ring finger.  
  
Looking over here too often. Drawing me?  
  
Back row. Middle. Young man. Very handsome. Movie star? Maybe  
  
heading my way. Hope he's teenage sort who likes older women.  
  
Stretched out on seat like owns the place. Very angry. Lips move to form  
  
all sorts of swear words. Speaks little. Chinese? Japanese? Korean?  
  
Alec Peterson. Alexander - English - 'defender of men'. Across the aisle.  
  
Elderly. Want to shove mobile phone up him. Won't stop arguing to wife on it.  
  
Vacationing in Silent Hill. Several kids. Way too many grandkids. Retired  
  
salesman. Too much energy. Know too much about him. Damn mobile.  
  
Name tag says Carrie Walsh. Carrie - like Carey - 'pleasant stream'.  
  
Bus driver. Woman. Middle-aged. Seems dull.  
  
Two young women and a little girl. Sisters? Whose the mother of the girl?  
  
Girl's called Alisha. They giggly and chatted since got on at Brahm's.  
  
Been quiet since we entered the hills surrounding Silent Hill. Very pale.  
  
What are they afraid of?  
  
"Excuse me," the cute teen said as he pushed past. She almost groaned at the sight of him and wasn't sure why. She liked very tall men and he was only 5'8". He also wasn't particularly muscular, more lean. An Asian man with straight blue-black hair flopping like a funerary veil in front of even darker eyes. She wanted to run a finger down his straight nose, then grip that strong jaw and taste those sensual lips. Normally she wouldn't look twice at a man who wasn't white yet there was something about him she wanted, desired, needed.  
  
Yet he ignored her, heading along the aisle to talk to Carrie. He no longer looked angry.  
  
"Stop the bus," he said, holding onto a pole for balance. Sounded Australian.  
  
"Stay behind the line, sir."  
  
"I just saw a car crashed into some trees back there. Someone might be hurt. Look, there was blood, I think."  
  
"You think?"  
  
"We're going 80 ks an hour. I didn't get more than a glimpse. Stop the bus."  
  
"Ks?"  
  
"Kilometers. I can't convert to miles. Look, are you going to stop this bus or not?"  
  
"No."  
  
The teen ran a hand through his hair, agitated. Then he turned to face the elderly man. "Can I borrow your phone?"  
  
"Er. Look, Mr?" Alec said.  
  
"It's Sam Usman. Anyway, I'll pay for the damn call. What's wrong with you people?"  
  
Jenny reached into her bag and pulled out her Baby Naming book. It was another one of her little habits. "Samuel - Irish - 'Asked by God'. Usman - Arabic - 'The possessor of two lights'."  
  
"Don't stop the bus," one of Alisha's possible mothers says.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You don't know what's out there. They'll come and get us. We can't stop coz there's no point coz there's no one in that car anymore. They would've come and taken them away by now and I'm not letting Alisha join them."  
  
"Hello?" Alec said into his phone. "Yes, I'm here. No. Wait, what was that? You're breaking up. What are you? Say that again. Hello? Hello? Damn." He handed the phone to the teenager. "No signal."  
  
"I'm not stopping this bus," said Carrie.  
  
"I've been warned about that kinda people around here but I never thought you people would go this far," Sam said "They could be dying."  
  
"And what could you d-?"  
  
Then turned a corner in the road. Carrie slammed her foot into the brakes. Jenny's bag went flying, spewing its contents over everyone in the bus. Her notepad was torn from her hands and she landed against the seat in front of her. Winded and reeling, she bounced back. Sam had been flung halfway down the aisle and was now lying with a leg tangled around a chair. She looked around.  
  
Carrie was opening the bus door. Through the windshield, Jenny could see what they had stopped for. A blue sedan with no number plates was parked across the road, its bonnet crumpled and its boot dented. Pegged onto the roof was a heavily pregnant woman in a white transparent dress. She remembered the woman from the article but didn't think it could be her. That woman would be in police custody, surely.  
  
Letters were sprayed in blue paint on the road, the roof of the car and across the unconscious woman. A Hebrew name. Pethuel.  
  
Jenny got down on all fours, looking for her Baby Naming Book. She had to know what that name meant.  
  
Sam got up and walked out of the bus, following Carrie. They said a few words that she didn't quite catch.  
  
Finally she found her book. Right at the back of the bus. "Pethuel - Hebrew - 'Opened to God'." 


	2. It Bleeds

Sam walked out of that bus as though he were in a dream. It sure didn't feel like reality. Where in reality does a car he saw busted up five ks down the road reappear on a road that is not connected with any side roads? How can that car and the road be spray painted in the time it takes to travel that five ks and yet the pain was dry? And how the hell was his ex- girlfriend heavily pregnant and bound to the pegs embedded roof of said car with rope?  
  
When she said she needed help in that letter, she really wasn't kidding. So he stood there, next to Carrie, watching Julia for what felt like hours. Carrie was talking, complaining about another childish prank and complaining about how much longer it would take to get anywhere. The women accompanying the young child were screaming at the top of their lungs for Carrie to get back in the bus and drive the hell outta there. In reverse, if she had to.  
  
Alec came down the steps. "Is she dead?"  
  
That phrase was somehow enough to wake him. He jumped onto the bonnet, climbed onto the groaning roof and struggled with the rope bindings till his hands bled. Somehow he managed to undo them and gather her up in his arms, careful of her swollen belly. There were tears in his eyes and he wondered vaguely how they got there. He didn't remember crying. He didn't feel anything.  
  
Everything else just seemed in slow motion. Not the fun slow motion of movies. This was the kind of slow-mo that happened in beats, breaking each section of time up into bite-sized pieces and made his head spin. He carefully brought her down off the roof and checked her vitals. She was uninjured, breathing and her heart was beating steadily.  
  
They took her back onto the bus.  
  
"Drive in reverse, knock the car outta the way, it doesn't matter," one of the women were squawking. "We have to get on outta here. No, don't bring her in here. She'll attract them. She's bait. She'll draw the things, the monsters."  
  
"If you throw her off then the only monster I see here will be you," Sam said.  
  
"We've got to protect Alisha."  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"I'm Jade, her mother, and this is my cousin, Lucy."  
  
"Well, you two seem to know what's going on here so spill. What's with that car and why was my girlfriend, erm, ex-girlfriend, tied up on it? I thought the police were holding her."  
  
"The cops have no power here," Lucy made the sign of the cross and refused to say anymore.  
  
"I should be able to make it around that car," Carrie said as she got back into the driver's seat.  
  
Sam stayed on the aisle floor, Julia's head on his lap. He'd flown over to America as soon as he had received the letter and article about her arrest. They had practised safe sex right up until a month before the break up. They'd been together ever since they were both fifteen, three whole years, so it hadn't seemed like a big thing to fly all the way from Australia for her. They had only broken up three months ago. How could she have been this pregnant? How could he not have notice it?  
  
He hoped both she and the baby were all right.  
  
The bus slowly moved around the car, leaning violently to the right when the wheels on the right-side left the road and had to run along the slanting hillside. He winced with every bump, fearing for her.  
  
"You know her?" Lucy asked.  
  
"Yes. She's why I'm here."  
  
"Then you should go, too. Get off the bus with her. No point dragging us all in."  
  
"If you're so frightened, why're you heading this way?"  
  
"It don't matter. You just get off. Now. Don't matter where we go."  
  
"Mummy, I'm scared," said four-year-old Alisha.  
  
"See? You do right thing and leave. Go on."  
  
The rest of the drive into Silent Hill was anything but uneventful. As the road wound around the hill, it became increasingly foggy outside despite the previously warm July weather. As they passed the gas station, they found themselves moving quickly towards a chasm gaping open in the middle of the road.  
  
The bus braked. Not so sharply this time as Carrie saw it coming. Again the door opened and she went out to check. Sam wanted to know what was happening but he didn't dare leave Julia. Alisha's family were glaring at her as was the odd-looking woman in black leather clutching a baby naming book to her chest. The artist, pale-faced and chewing her lip, was busy drawing them.  
  
"Hey, who're you?"  
  
"Dinah," she looked startled by his acknowledging her. Perhaps she was shy.  
  
"Do me a favour and sketch whatever's out there," he flashed her his friendliest grin but for some reason it just seemed to frighten her more. It didn't come as too much of a shock because people always seemed to act weird around him. Maybe it was the accent or the clothes, but his presence always seemed to weigh heavily on other people's minds. "I wanna know what's going on but I don't wanna leave her here. It'd look good in your sketchbook. Not every day you get to see one of them."  
  
This got a smile out of her and she nodded. Gathering up her materials, she carefully brushed past him, seeming so tense he could have sworn she'd jump out of her skin if he made any sudden moves. Then he looked down at Julia and remembered the car and realised the tension in the bus probably had nothing to do with him.  
  
That would be a first.  
  
He half-hoped the cops wouldn't need to become involved. They always blamed him for everything. Could be just passing by and they'd come and talk to him.  
  
"Remind me to change my style in clothes," he whispered to Julia. "Wear suits or something."  
  
Julia groaned, her eyes flickering open, then closed again.  
  
"You can hear me? Wake up, c'mon."  
  
"It'd be better for her if she never woke up at all," Alisha said softly.  
  
"What in hell's name are you talking about?" Alec asked. "You're all so eager to let her die. Animals!"  
  
Julia opened her eyes again. This time managing to focus on Sam's face. She screeched, struggling away from him, her eyes bulging and her lips skinned back. He watched her, stunned, as she crawled backwards out of the bus, her arms and legs moving almost reptilian. She ran out of the bus and into the nearby gas station.  
  
"Julia?"  
  
Something warm and wet hit his cheek.  
  
He turned to look at Alisha's family and Jenny. They were staring at the roof above him. Their mouths hanging slack and their eyes bulging. Slowly he tilted his head back.  
  
A symbol had been freshly sprayed on the roof with some kind of red paint that smelt like paint but was as warm as blood. The symbol was complex but could be described as containing three small circles within one large one. He looked at it and felt no recognition. Nothing.  
  
Yet there was a kind of knowing in Alisha's eyes as she looked down from the symbol and stared at him. A kind of pained understanding he wished not to behold. Accusation. He was being blamed for all this and he knew it. Unnatural anger crackled through him and he lunged forward, ready to gouge out her eyes, blind her and through that pain bind her to him. He stopped short of bringing his arms up, breathing heavily, doing what he always did to keep from injuring others.  
  
Then he turned and sprinted after Julia. Carrie and Dinah were talking to the gas attendant.  
  
"Where'd Julia go?" Sam asked them.  
  
They just looked at him and shrugged. "Haven't seen her," Carrie said.  
  
"I coulda sworn she came in here. What's that guy got to say about the chasm?"  
  
"What chasm?" the gas attendant asked.  
  
"The one just outside."  
  
"Outside? There's a chasm?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"That's absurd."  
  
"See that fog?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"That's absurd."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Coz it's July."  
  
"Don't bother," Carrie said. "He's nuts. He doesn't understand a single word we say."  
  
"Look, I'm gonna try and find Julia. I'll be back."  
  
He ran back out of the gas station. There were a few cars parked but nothing else. There was nowhere near here that she could have hidden and he was certain she had headed this way. He headed back inside.  
  
"Are you sure you haven't--?"  
  
The gas station looked different, smelled different. The lights were no longer on. His footfalls lifted dust into the air, burning his nostrils, along with a queer mix of what smelled like ammonia and chlorine. The shelves were practically clear of merchandise, rusting metal grilles in place of plastic shelves, concrete instead of linoleum. Carrie and Dinah weren't there anymore. There was no sign of anyone.  
  
Something thudded against the door to the girl's toilets.  
  
He jumped back, grabbing a tin of peas for defence. He caught a glimpse of something moving quickly under the door. More thudding, as though something or someone was being thrown against the walls on the inside of the room. Something tinkled. A light alloy of steel by the sound of it. Seconds after he heard it, a key slid out from under the door.  
  
Silence.  
  
He cautiously moved forward, leaned down and snatched up the key, walking back quickly.  
  
More thudding, but this time from outside the toilets and in the main room. Coming from the west wall and moving across the ceiling overhead. He couldn't see the figure nor its shadow. Couldn't even see who or what it was being tossed across the room and slammed against walls with a spray of blood. Cans were knocked off shelves, the glass front of the soda fridge cracked, and blood seemed to spray up from every direction as more and more things were sent thudding across the room.  
  
Distant sirens wailed in his head, causing pain to shoot down his back, sending it into spasms. He crawled across the floor, trying to keep control of his limbs and grabbed hold of the gas station doors. They started to open under his weight.  
  
Something landed against the door with a sickening thud, shutting the doors and bouncing off to slap him across the face. He glimpsed a horrifically mutilated body before unconsciousness rose up to claim him. 


	3. No time for a coffee

Sam nearly fell off the table when he awoke. He vaguely remembered slipping in and out of consciousness but wasn't sure if that were just a dream and he had slept through the entire time. Alisha, Jenny and Alec were in the room with him, sitting on chairs or the floor. They were in some kind of office. A computer was in one corner of the room. At least there was carpet and not that dreaded concrete.  
  
"What happened?" he asked.  
  
"Jade and Lucy slit their own throats," Alec said.  
  
Alisha started crying, hiding her face in the sleeve of her blue dress. She was a cute little girl, blue-eyed and dark-haired, who reminded Sam of his mother. That woman sure would have set the record straight with whatever was going on here. A real formidable woman. Sam reached out to give Alisha a comforting hug but the girl backed away from him and went for the door. Jenny grabbed her before she could open it and pulled her into a bear hug.  
  
"Guess I don't have a way with children."  
  
"Where are the others?" Sam asked.  
  
"Don't you know?" Jenny asked. "Dinah and Carrie were in here, with you. Whatever happened to you must have happened to them."  
  
"I don't know what happened to me. Something hit me and this whole place looked so different... Must have been a nightmare. I was probably knocked out as I tried to leave the first time."  
  
"No, it's true," Alisha said. "Momma always said this place changes like a monster when it wants you and it wants us. You should have let Momma kill me. Now the monsters are gonna get me and tear me apart in God's name. In Her name."  
  
"God?" Alec asked.  
  
"The cultists, they believe in Her and worship Her and mommy tried to move away because she saw heaven and she didn't like it and she was glad when that lady came and took heaven away again. God, Samael, male, female, whatever it is has come for us. She's never left. He won't let us go. God or demon, it wants us. It wants us because it uses pain and blood and rust to make things, monsters and worlds, and it wants to build itself a new world. That's what mommy says. The priests don't believe it but mommy does."  
  
"Oh, you poor kid," Alec said. "Having to grow up with parents who thought like that."  
  
"And I thought I was insane," Jenny laughed. "I'm not, really. Just got a few kinks to sort out in the old personality side but I know logic when I see it and that's nonsense."  
  
"No, it's not," Alisha said. "Mommy saw it. They keep trying to birth God. First they tried to bring it's soul in a little girl but then they had to get another little girl for the other half of a soul coz it's soul's too big or somethin'. Then the little girl's daddy, the one who looked after her but wasn't her real daddy, killed it. Then they tried to make it be born the proper way, from the womb, but that didn't work neither and now they've found a way. We don't know how but they've got another chance."  
  
"If that were true then why would your mommy and bring you back here?" Jenny asked.  
  
"I dunno. They never told me that. I'm scared. Why couldn't you let me die with mommy?"  
  
"Over some dumb lie?" Alec said. "No, we're going to get out of here."  
  
"Have you tried the phone?" Sam asked.  
  
"Yep. We even tried the Internet. Computer won't even turn on though there's power here. The lights are on and all."  
  
"Bloody computers. Have you seen Julia?"  
  
"She's dead like the others," Alisha said. "She's not your Julia anymore. Just a memory. They killed them all. Dinah, Carrie, all of them and they're gonna get you."  
  
"Anyone ever tell you to look on the bright side?" he got up off the table and walked to the door. "Maybe there's a way around that earthquake hole?"  
  
"Maybe we should sit tight," Alec said. "Don't need the emergency services having to pull us out of there as well as the townsfolk."  
  
"I gotta find Julia. We've been together since forever."  
  
"She broke your heart, right? Did the feminine thing? I say forget about her and think of yourself. She's the one who came to this godforsaken place and then after we found her she decided to rush off again and get herself lost. Since when has that become our problem?"  
  
Sam rounded on the old man and poked a finger into his pot belly. "Do you want to stay here? Then fine. I don't care." He opened the door and headed out.  
  
"Wait," Jenny called out, pausing in the doorway and clutching little Alisha's hand. "You can't leave us here."  
  
"What are you so afraid for? This is the safe place, right? I'm the one who'll be risking life and limb out there. No telling how unstable those buildings might be."  
  
"I just want to wish you good luck. We'll probably head back the way we came. Carrie had the bus keys with her so we'll have to walk."  
  
"No, don't do that. It's too foggy and that road is too steep. You won't stand a chance if a car starts coming for you. Fog does wonders with sound, dampens it. You'd think the car was far away and it'd be right there. Look, give me four hours. I'll see what I can do for transport. Bound to be some car parked in front of a house with the keys in the building. If I can't find Julia by then, I probably never will until the fog lifts."  
  
"You won't come back," Alisha said. "Only important people come back and you don't want to be important."  
  
Sam sighed and trudged towards the door. It was cold outside and had already begun to snow. The snow bit at his skin and fell onto the collar of his jacket, melting and sliding down the back of his neck. The footpath to the right was intact. He only hoped it wasn't a bit of unsteady overhang or else he could enjoy a nice plummet several dozen feet to sharp rock. 


	4. Angela, This Is My Soul

Sam had been walking fo a while when he came across her. A mouse brunette woman, standing a few dozen feet away, facing side on to him and looking around the street corner. Something about her reminded him of a little carousel playing some sweet melody or another. No, not an actual toy but the story of one. It was hard to think that far back.  
  
He jogged towards her, trying to ignore the opressive gloom overhanging the trees, the buildings. The place was hideously silent. Not even a bird.  
  
"Daddy?" she whirled, took a step back, raising one hand to her chest. "Oh, god. I thought you were-- But, you're not-- Hi, I'm looking for a little girl. She's about this high, dark hair. I thought I saw her run over where you came. Did you see her?"  
  
"Uh, no. You're the first person I've seen since I left the petrol station."  
  
"Are you from around here," she clutched her right arm close to her chest. There was blood on it.  
  
"You're hurt," he strode towards her and reached for the injured arm but she just stepped back quickly.  
  
"N-no."  
  
"Hey, I'm not half as scary as I look. Hell, I don't even think I look scary. I've seen tougher guys who're all muscle and snarls. What could I do? If we arm wrestled, you'd probably win." He flashed her a gentle smile and sat down on a fence. "So what are you doing here?"  
  
"I dunno. I was looking for my mom but I don't think she's here."  
  
"How do you figure?"  
  
"Been looking for a long time. Seems like forever," she sat on the fence alongside him, about eight feet away, and stared at her shoes.  
  
"I know that feeling. So you live around here?"  
  
"No."  
  
"When did you get here? Before this – whatever this is – happened?"  
  
"I dunno. Can't really remember."  
  
"Guess it's that kinda place, huh?"  
  
"Yeah. I'm Angela."  
  
"Sam. You sure you don't want me to take a look at your arm? I dunno if there's much I could do but I sure as hell would feel a whole lot better if I knew you weren't going to die on me."  
  
"Would it really bother you that much?" she narrowed her eyes at him.  
  
"Well, yeah. I don't like seeing people get hurt."  
  
"Oh, sure," she rolled her eyes.  
  
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean? I've never so much as punched anyone. Like I said, I'm a wimp. So sue me. Speaking of 'have you seen someone', I'm looking for someone as well. My pregnant ex-girlfriend. I think she hit her head or is tripping on something, or I am. When I saw her, she was on this car, right? And there was all this paint and she was fully pregnant. I only saw her three months ago, approximately. How do you go from flat to about to drop in three months?"  
  
"So you're pretending the child isn't yours?"  
  
"I'm not disputing I'm the father-- Okay, I am in a way. Because she can't be pregnant. No way is that possible. No one's the father of that thing because there's nothing there. Something here must have gotten to her, given her a phantom pregnancy or something."  
  
"Do you really believe that?" her dark eyes bore into his own.  
  
"No."  
  
She shrugged and looked away. "You know something about this place, don't you." It wasn't a question.  
  
"Yeah. Only I don't know what yet. I get this awful feeling that I should. Like this is all so very familiar. You ever feel that way about a really bad place?"  
  
"What happened to this place? Was it an earthquake?"  
  
"An earthquake?" she frowned at him. "I don't understand."  
  
"The pits in the road-- Not much else could have caused them. Or was there some sort of explosion?"  
  
"I haven't seen any pits. How deep were they?"  
  
"Do you love that girlfriend of yours?"  
  
"Julia? Heck, yeah."  
  
"So why aren't you searching for her?"  
  
"Because I haven't a clue where to look for her and I'm trying to work up the courage to ask you to accompany me."  
  
"What? No, I couldn't."  
  
"Why not? You got a need to be alone?"  
  
"I'd only slow you down."  
  
"You might keep me from doing something stupid like running off a cliff or something. I'm very impulsive."  
  
"No, I-- Why did she flee? Did you hit her?"  
  
"No, never. I've never hit anyone."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought she was afraid of you. That's what it sounded like."  
  
"I've never laid a hand on her," his head started to spin and hum. He rubbed his temples. "She was always on about how I did this or that. Needed psychiatric drugs or something. For Christ's sake, I never touched her and that's a fact. Never so much as pushed her. I wouldn't do that. I know what it's like, y'know? To be on the receiving end."  
  
"Sure," she refused to look at him.  
  
"It's the truth, I swear to God, on my very soul." The humming became static that buzzed and crackled.  
  
"Okay, well, if that is what you say," she stood and turned to walk away, clutching her arms.  
  
"Look, I'm – I'm sorry."  
  
"Sorry?" she rounded on him. "What do you have to be sorry for? You never did anything, did you? Nothing at all. That's what you said."  
  
"No, I'm sorry," said a little girl's voice. It seemed to come from behind him. The static was unbearable now and he couldn't block it out even with both hands clutched to his ears. "I'm sorry because I called them and I'm going to have to let them hurt you now. Mommy wants what mommy gets, or in your case, daddy."  
  
Angela stared at him and he tried to turn around, to see the little girl but his head felt so heavy. As though it were filled with lead.  
  
"You belong here, Angela, darling. You belong here with me because you wanted to be punished for being such a dirty, little girl. I don't want to let the things get you and I try real hard to keep them away 'cause you're like me. You shouldn't be here, neither should I, but none of that matters now because She wants us here. She wants the Split Dogs to get you now and I can't stop that."  
  
Something lunged out of the trees and landed on Angela, knocking her down and tearing at her pretty white wrists as she struggled to keep her arms between it and her throat. It was some disgusting form of canine, it's legs split in two at the knee, a gaping maw under its chin, its lips sewn together and it's eyes were two tiny pin pricks of malevolence.  
  
Sam kicked down a letter box, tearing the stump from the ground and rushed towards the dog. There was blood and it was flowing now, forming a pool beneath her and becoming pretty streams and for a while he was mesmerised as the rage and panic grew and then he was on the split dog, caving in its skull with wood and thought. The thing fell to its side, on fire, and began to crawl away. He follows it, watching it impassively, the wood held in a relaxed hand.  
  
"You would leave me here, wouldn't you?" Angela screaming. He turns and she's on her knees, holding up her wounded arms, pressing them together. Such a delicate white and for a moment he glimpses flame and wants to share it. He can feel it searing his skin, such an old memory, but he can't see it. Not really. Just the ghost of what she can see and he knows then and there that they were linked.  
  
He smiles and wants to join her as she joins him in the flame. As they roast and burn but she couldn't feel what he couldn't see. The pain flowed over his body and he felt his skin blister and crack. She stepped away then, nearly tripping over a broken bottle, a look of stark terror on her face. She could see the wall of flame surrounding him that he felt. Although he couldn't see it, he knew it was there. It was always there. Waiting to claim him. To bring him back.  
  
The static in his head was getting louder, forming words. Forming terrible words that he tried to scrub out of his mind.  
  
krchhhhhhh"MUMMY,BUTIDON'TWANTTOGO"krchhhhhhh  
  
He walks towards her, staggering and suddenly she is afraid. He can see it. She backs away further, even as he flings his arms wide in a gesture he remembers from another, and she trips and falls this time and crawls backwards. Mewling as she recognises in him what she can't bear to recognise in herself. He reaches down to grasp her wounded hand and draw her to him. They could be sisters.  
  
Krchhhhhhh"Daddy?Helpme.Daddycomefindme."krchhhhhhh  
  
She lets out a sob, clambers to her feet and runs.  
  
He shakes his head to clear it, trying to regain control. Then he feels the present slip from his thoughts and he viewed everything in past tense again, as the normal did. No longer hyper aware but at last in control of himself. He turned and followed the blood trail left by the dog. He didn't know why but it was a way to go.  
  
"It hurts, it hurts," a voice screamed from a nearby house.  
  
He turned and ran inside, barrelling through the door and sliding to a halt. Alec and Jenny hanging by a rope slick with gore, kicking their legs, their heads twitching and tongues lolling. Still alive. Between them stood Alisha. She was swollen with rage, literally, her small frame boulbous and hideous. She clutched a large spear.  
  
"Make mommy and cousin come back or I'll make 'em dead," Alisha said. "The gates of Heaven will open and flood this realm. If you hadn't made us stop, hadn't noticed her and called the car onto the road, then we would have been in the church and woulda confessed and She wouldn't be angry with us anymore. There'd be no monsters and we wouldn't be trapped here. Make them come back. I know it can be done. God will resurrect them. She must but She can't if you're here to ruin it all. Oh, mommy!"  
  
"What did you do?" he walked towards her but the writhing flesh beneath her skin made him stop. That and the way she thrust her spear towards him.  
  
"I saw you talking to that whore, Angela. Next it'll be that stupid Nurse, that fat stupid bitch who took God away from us. Who helped him. The usurper who took the place of us in the Mother of God's eyes. The one who was supposed to help us. You'll bring them back but you won't bring back mommy and cousin." She started to cry and her tears were black ichor that stained her face. "I hate you, pig, slob. I want my mommy back and I'm gonna have her back!"  
  
There was no way he was going to offer this girl comfort. The hands that clutched the spear became liquid that flowed over the spear, turning it fleshy and colouring it with blood tendrils that circled and swirled and made pretty lines. It frightened him. The girl snarled and pointed the spear at him and suddenly the mail post seemed insignificant. A toothpick.  
  
His legs weakened and he half-turned to flee, glancing at the door before looking back at the little girl and the two swinging people. Alec had stopped kicking and was now hanging limp. It wasn't his fault what the little girl did, surely. It wasn't as though he could do anything to stop her. Only die trying. Then what would protect Julia from these psychotic mutations?  
  
Then Jenny's eyes locked onto his and he felt strength surge inside of himself. Not the raging power but something stronger and more mature. His dead mother's guiding hand. He pictured her hair, blonde with dark roots, pictured her face. As he grew up, she had slowly faded away. Now Jenny was fading away and she had the same pained look on her face.  
  
She raced towards him and the air crackled. He raised his hand to defend himself and there was a gun already there, his finger curled around the trigger. He fired until the gun was empty, walking backwards. Memories of a mall flashed through his head.  
  
A little girl was calling out admist the static that consumed his mind as the girl crumpled to the floor, her flesh turning to fluid and running off the bone. Not Alisha's voice. Another one. Rising up above the sirens that wailed back and forth through the air, signifying the end of chaos and the death of logic.  
  
krchhhhhhh"Daddy,help me.Daddy?Where are you?" krchhhhhhh  
  
Sam ran to Jenny and supported her legs, unable to let her go without her choking yet unable to cut her down with nothing but an empty gun in his hands. He held onto her until the darkness claimed him. 


End file.
